Fred MacMurray, 83, who starred in dozens of Hollywood movie dramas, including "The Caine Mutiny" and "Double Indemnity," and dominated one of television's longest-running series, "My Three Sons," died yesterday in Santa Monica, Calif.
Sometimes, as in the gritty "Double Indemnity," a 1944 crime classic, Mr. MacMurray's charming nice guy was flawed and forced to pay for it. In comedy, such as "My Three Sons" or "The Absent-Minded Professor," he showed deft timing and an appealing exasperation.
A former high school athlete who also played the saxophone, Mr. MacMurray embellished his reputation for unpretentious versatility with well-received performances in westerns and musicals.
A spokeswoman at St. John's Hospital and Health Center said Mr. MacMurray died there of pneumonia at 10:45 a.m. She said he had been hospitalized for cancer.
Off screen, Mr. MacMurray was known for making shrewd use of the substantial paychecks his acting drew. He was said to be one of the wealthiest men in his profession, with large real estate holdings.
Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Ill., Aug. 30, 1908. His father, a violinist, was playing a concert there at the time. Mr. MacMurray himself was playing the violin at age 5. In high school in Beaver Dam, Wis., Mr. MacMurray won 10 letters in sports and a medal for outstanding performance in both athletics and academics.
While attending Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis., on a scholarship, he played saxophone in a jazz band six nights a week. Eventually, he left college to play with a band while attending the Chicago Art Institute at night.
After chauffeuring his mother and an aunt on a trip to Los Angeles, he found work as a movie extra while building a reputation as a combination saxophonist, singer and comic with the California Collegians, a vaudeville band.
With that group, he appeared on Broadway in 1930 in "Three's a Crowd," which led to a Paramount studios screen test that took him back to Hollywood. He was on loan to RKO in 1935 for his first picture, "Grand Old Girl."
The road to stardom opened with his third picture, "The Gilded Lily," made for Paramount opposite Claudette Colbert.
Through the 1930s, with roles in such films as "Alice Adams," "Trail of the Lonesome Pine," "Beyond Suspicion," "Exclusive," "True Confession," "Coconut Grove," "Sing You Sinners" and "Invitation to Happiness," Mr. MacMurray established himself as a public favorite
In the words of Billy Wilder, his director in "Double Indemnity," Mr. MacMurray was "everybody's nice fellow," a man who gave "the feeling that he's kind to dogs, children, mothers and widows."
Among his better-known films from the '40s and '50s are "Miracle of the Bells," "The Egg and I," and "Suddenly It's Spring."
Through the years, he was paired with some of Hollywood's most alluring female stars, including Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck and Madeleine Carroll.
His success in these roles appeared to stem from his ability to project deep feeling beneath a taciturn exterior.
"Sometimes a writer writes scenes for people who just say 'Hi' to indicate they're in love," he told a magazine interviewer in 1962. "I play those scenes very well."
A series of Walt Disney comedies, including "The Shaggy Dog" and "Bon Voyage," as well as "The Absent-Minded Professor" and its sequel, "Son of Flubber," were credited with imparting a new direction to a career that had reached a dramatic peak with "The Apartment" in 1960.
As the widower head of a family of three growing boys in "My Three Sons," Mr. MacMurray was a popular guest in the nation's living rooms for 369 first visits, from Sept. 29, 1960, through Aug. 24, 1972, initially on ABC, then on CBS.
He married Lillian Lamont in 1936; after her death, he married June Haver, who, the hospital spokeswoman said, was at his bedside yesterday along with their daughter, Kate. Survivors also include two daughters, Laurie and Susan, a son, Robert, seven grandchildren and a great grandchild.
